Hasselblad vs GFX system

[PSS]

I was coincidentally looking at the 45 today! I would love to have a nice 'walkaround' for when we take a weekend off with the kids. I always have an equivalent of 35mm and 50mm in all my kits so that would compliment the full frame and apsc gear I have.

for the money, the 45P is a no brainer, they are all good, for the most part pretty excellent but they get expensive and used prices often aren't that much lower.
the 33x44 sensor changes things in regard to focal length. I thought I would want/need 21, 45, 90 but now I have 21, 30, 45, 65 and got the 120 since I was able to sell the 90 to friend who now also has the 30, 45 (and now 90) the 30 and 65 were the real surprise to me, never thought I would use those so much.
but the 45P is the perfect starter, walk around lens and a real bargain at the price!

 

[Geoff]

Can you say why you prefer the 65 to the 90?

 

[PSS]

Can you say why you prefer the 65 to the 90?

depends on what you like. I never really considered the 65 at all since my first lens was the 45P and I needed the 21 for interiors and so the 90 was a logical longer choice for tighter shots. then I realized that the 21 was too wide for "normal" wide shots with people and the 45P a little tighter then what I had planned for. I also wanted to get closer, so the macro was a better solution for me then the 90. I love the 90 and really only sold it to a friend, so I still have access. either way 21, 30, 45, 120 left me with a big hole and I found a great deal on a 65, so I jumped on it. it might be the sharpest lens in my line up, it is very compact, nice to focus manually and I find it a great portrait lens. I am not a big fan of long lenses and prefer to shoot even tighter portraits with wider lenses. the 45 is great for portraits but not once you have to get close. the 65 really is a great lens, if the 45P wasn't so cheap I would be ok with the 30 and 65.

 

[marchaers]

IMO the 50mpix sensor in the X1D and GFX is still the best one out there, still good enough for fuji to come out with a new body and the original (and limited ed) X1D still have the same IQ. AF sucks with GFX and all cameras with that sensor and the 100mpix version isn't that much better either.
so as a image capture device you still have a top body. and lots of options for lenses. I would still get the 45P to see how good the XCD glass is.

I got the 45P today! Really amazing piece of glass and I was pleasantly surprised that this particular one does have 'true' manual focus and no FBW focusing. Mandatory cat photo included.

 

[KlausJH]

I got the 45P today! Really amazing piece of glass and I was pleasantly surprised that this particular one does have 'true' manual focus and no FBW focusing. Mandatory cat photo included.

Yes, I agree. But unfortunately the focus setting is lost when the camera is shut off. Focus is alway set to infinity after power on which can also be an advantage in some situations, e.g. the night sky.

 

[usm]

Glad you wrote the „true“ with „“. Coming from Leica M, now using 907x/45p, the manual focus is „ok“

But love the IC and colors.

 

[PSS]

I have hard time manually focussing any lens on the 907, but its also not the way I really use that camera.
on the X1DII I find the 65 (and 90) are easiest to focus out of the lenses I have experience with.

 

[JLeeSaxon]

Note that the GFX100 has the IQ4-150‘s sensor but cropped.

What's super interesting is that if you look at this https://blog.kasson.com/gfx-100s/gfx-100s-sensor-is-a-4-shot-stitch/ it might technically be more accurate to say that the GFX 100 and IQ40-150 both use "the A7r IV sensor but stitched". I know you weren't being that literal/technical, I just thought this would be interesting to mention for anyone who hadn't seen this.

 

[sixby45]

I got the 45P today! Really amazing piece of glass and I was pleasantly surprised that this particular one does have 'true' manual focus and no FBW focusing. Mandatory cat photo included.

Love the cat photo! So fun

 

[P. Chong]

I had always thought that all three sensors were made as a very large wafer and cut to either full frame, cropped MF or “full” MF.

What's super interesting is that if you look at this https://blog.kasson.com/gfx-100s/gfx-100s-sensor-is-a-4-shot-stitch/ it might technically be more accurate to say that the GFX 100 and IQ40-150 both use "the A7r IV sensor but stitched". I know you weren't being that literal/technical, I just thought this would be interesting to mention for anyone who hadn't seen this.

 

[drevil]

What's super interesting is that if you look at this https://blog.kasson.com/gfx-100s/gfx-100s-sensor-is-a-4-shot-stitch/ it might technically be more accurate to say that the GFX 100 and IQ40-150 both use "the A7r IV sensor but stitched". I know you weren't being that literal/technical, I just thought this would be interesting to mention for anyone who hadn't seen this.

that is no secret and the case

 

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

The Sony A7rIV sensor is probably also stitched. The steppers exposing the sensor on silicon usually have around APS-H size aperture.

Best regards
Erik

that is no secret and the case

 

[marchaers]

I never thought I'd go back here for another update. But boys we're in for another ride. Good news though - I have settled. Finally.

The X1D ended up being quite a negative shooting experience for me for a couple of reasons. Even though the 45P F/4 was great - I rarely shoot anything wider than 50mm (35mm equivalent) so the 45P wasn't a good option.

If anyone ever has the same consideration and that is to adapt H-lenses - let me save you ALOT of trouble here.

Apparently (didn't read too much into it) the X-H adapter only accepts 18.0 firmware lenses (which means the latest / more expensive lenses) to have AF. At first I didn't care much because my main reason to go for it was manual focus + MF assist. Apparently that doesn't work at all.

The X1D can only apply manual focus assist/zoom on an AF point. Which means it needs to be able to communicate to an AF lens to be able to zoom while focusing. Alright I thought, no prob - I'll use the zoom button. Here came my biggest gripe. The Hasselblad will not remember a different focus point when it doesn't have an AF point. So every time I zoomed to focus (pressing the * button) it would always zoom to the center of the screen. Which basically counted out all of the (older) H lenses I had access to. I had to scroll back to the eye for every single shot... That s*cks. I felt like Hasselblad wouldn't allow me to have a 'fun' way to work with the system and make it my own. The eco system is perfect, but only if you are willing to stick to it.

I also really didn't want to spend upwards of 4000 euros to get myself a single 80mm F/1.9 lens, as that would blow open the budget for many better options. Which I had to consider.

So yeah. I sold off my X1D - made a tiny loss - which was definitely worth the experience and opted to finally go for the GFX 100S + 63mm F/2.8.

Boy did I wish I knew how good it was before I went down the Hasselblad rabbit hole. It is SO good for manual focus users - I'm a huge fan of the dual display in the viewfinder (look it up- it's amazing). They eye autofocus on the 63 works very well and I've now ordered a bunch of vintage glass + adapters to use on it. No fiddling with manual focus button pressing. It's all there. Switching to AF resets the displays to what I selected there and the other way around for MF.

This camera is so nice to use and though I really had my doubts with colors before. Getting used to color profiling has really set that straight for me.

So yeah. Now I own the GFX 100S and kept my trusty old(er) A7R II as a B-cam, A6400 for some video and recently got a beautiful Mamiya 6 in a trade for those clients that love film.

I think I've reached the holy state and balance of having 'too much gear , but just enough to justify it' LOL.

Now the fun addiction start. Adapting glass. If any of you have tips, let me know! I love finding gems for my Sony lenses, so can't wait to get a ridiculous amount of glass for the GFX.

 

[marchaers]

PS: I did make a memory of probably my worst condition of GAS in my life. I'm glad I'm cured when it comes to the camera. Lenses don't count. Right? lol.

 

[rdeloe]

Now the fun addiction start. Adapting glass. If any of you have tips, let me know! I love finding gems for my Sony lenses, so can't wait to get a ridiculous amount of glass for the GFX.

In my experience, adapting lenses to the GFX cameras is straightforward and high quality options exist. I do have a GF lens (the big 45-100) but I don't use it a lot at the moment. All my lenses are adapted.

Whether or not adapting lenses is worth your while depends on your own situation. I work off a tripod 95% of the time, so stop-down metering and no autofocus doesn't bother me at all. However, there's a reason they invented stop-down metering and autofocus.... If you're shooting hand held in fast moving situations, you'll rapidly discover why it's so much easier with native lenses.

Unless you get a lot of pleasure from buying different lenses and messing around with them, my advice is generally to stay in a system unless the system you chose doesn't have what you need. Many people are very happy with the results they're getting from Pentax 645 on GFX; I use several from from that line. Hasselblad V has fans, as does Mamiya 645. I'm also using various Schneider-Kreuznach camera lenses, switching them between my VX23D and an adapter for the GFX camera that allows them to be used directly on the camera. There really are a lot of great choices out there.

As a small side note, I use two Mamiya G lenses designed for the Mamiya 6 camera that you've acquired. Unfortunately, you won't be able to share them between your Mamiya 6 and your GFX camera. Adapting them for GFX requires permanently modifying them in a way that makes them useless for Mamiya 6. Having said that, the ones I use (50mm and 150mm) are superb on GFX. Mamiya hit it out of the park with these lenses. If you had purchased a Mamiya 7 system, you could have shared the lenses using Fotodiox's adapter.

 

[marchaers]

In my experience, adapting lenses to the GFX cameras is straightforward and high quality options exist. I do have a GF lens (the big 45-100) but I don't use it a lot at the moment. All my lenses are adapted.

Whether or not adapting lenses is worth your while depends on your own situation. I work off a tripod 95% of the time, so stop-down metering and no autofocus doesn't bother me at all. However, there's a reason they invented stop-down metering and autofocus.... If you're shooting hand held in fast moving situations, you'll rapidly discover why it's so much easier with native lenses.

Unless you get a lot of pleasure from buying different lenses and messing around with them, my advice is generally to stay in a system unless the system you chose doesn't have what you need. Many people are very happy with the results they're getting from Pentax 645 on GFX; I use several from from that line. Hasselblad V has fans, as does Mamiya 645. I'm also using various Schneider-Kreuznach camera lenses, switching them between my VX23D and an adapter for the GFX camera that allows them to be used directly on the camera. There really are a lot of great choices out there.

As a small side note, I use two Mamiya G lenses designed for the Mamiya 6 camera that you've acquired. Unfortunately, you won't be able to share them between your Mamiya 6 and your GFX camera. Adapting them for GFX requires permanently modifying them in a way that makes them useless for Mamiya 6. Having said that, the ones I use (50mm and 150mm) are superb on GFX. Mamiya hit it out of the park with these lenses. If you had purchased a Mamiya 7 system, you could have shared the lenses using Fotodiox's adapter.

Thanks for the response!

I actually nearly always manual focus even with high end campaigns due to reliability. The manual focus assist (zoom) changed my whole way of shooting about 6 or 7 years ago. So I rarely do anything else. It's mainly the reason why I got the 63mm 2.8 with the camera for whenever the situation demands good autofocus I'll still have it on hand.

I've seen an amazing review on the Zeiss contax 85mm 1.4 - I've ordered the adapter and will start playing with this lens. Seems to fit the look that I like.

Yeah I'll leave the in this case 75mm 3.5 permanently on the 6. It's the focal length I'd want to use on that camera. I guess it's a positive the 7 can be interchangeable but that one also brings a different price tag lol.

95% of the autofocusing work I do have will be done well by the 63mm so I'm planning to really play around with lenses that have defining character/bokeh/'look' to them. If I ever need a wider lens for a gig I'll either rent a lens for it or add it to my set. I've always rolled with the equivalent of a 35 and 50 in my kits. Nothing else (excluding vintage glass).

Thanks again for your reply I'll definitely look into the glass you mentioned!

 

[rdeloe]

Thanks for the response!

I actually nearly always manual focus even with high end campaigns due to reliability. The manual focus assist (zoom) changed my whole way of shooting about 6 or 7 years ago. So I rarely do anything else. It's mainly the reason why I got the 63mm 2.8 with the camera for whenever the situation demands good autofocus I'll still have it on hand.

Manual focus with a native lens and manual focus with an adapted lens is a bit different. It might still work out for you, but it is different. There are lots of ways to set it up and customize it for your needs.

 

[marchaers]

Manual focus with a native lens and manual focus with an adapted lens is a bit different. It might still work out for you, but it is different. There are lots of ways to set it up and customize it for your needs.

Yeah I've already set up the camera planning ahead for that. I'm using the dual display in the viewfinder, that has my preference. (Zoomed in on the left and frame on the right). It's way better than what I did back in the day with my Sony cameras 'click to zoom' lol.